Doomed to Fail

         What was the worst time you’ve ever messed up? Were there a lot of witnesses? Of all the times I’ve messed up performing music, giving presentations, or leading projects, there’s a natural human tendency for “damage control”. We like to salvage our pride, so we mitigate how many people watch us screw up.

         Yet another of the strange situations I found myself in Japan last year was giving a joint performance in front of a room of 200 Japanese college students at Aoyama Gakuin University. Anna Gardner danced, Jack sang and played guitar, and I showcased some of my photography for a Christianity 101 class. A room full of peers. A room full of people I desperately wanted to impress.

         Long story short, the performance was a disaster. Utter chaos. Nothing went as expected. We hadn’t practiced beforehand, so the whole thing boiled down to improv. These students had never met Christians their age and here they had just witnessed one of the worst presentations I’ve ever had the pleasure to give.

         Our joint message ended up being about how big God is which enables us to fail freely. The climax was when Anna gave her testimony of salvation. She often would pressure herself to be perfect in dance, falling short of her own expectations. Likewise, we try to be perfect as Christians but frequently fall short of God’s perfect standard. Praise God that His grace abounds despite our own inadequacy!

After the class, we received handwritten comments of what the students observed:

         How wonderful is it that God uses our broken performance to do wondrous things. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). We may not be winning an Oscar anytime soon, but you never know how God will use an experience so shape a stranger.